May the words of our mouths and the meditations of all of our hearts contribute to peace and justice in this world. I invite you at the end of each passage to speak these words in unison: We bear witness. One year ago this morning, Mike Brown, the son of Michael Brown Sr. and Lesley …
Prayer on the First Anniversary of Michael Brown’s Death Read More »
Mother’s Day is upon us. In Unitarian Universalist congregations, Mother’s Day is often spent invoking the words of Unitarian Julia Ward Howe and her Mother’s Day Proclamation. She wrote it in 1870 as an international anti-war cry, having witnessed the carnage of the Civil War in this country and the Franco-Prussian war in Europe. It …
Mother's Day Proclamation in the Shadow of #BaltimoreUprising Read More »
It was a Sunday of worship when those gathered were paying homage to the efforts and sacrifices of the civil rights movement. It could have been the Sunday before the MLK Jr. holiday. It could have been the fiftieth anniversary of an important milestone in the civil rights struggle: the March on Washington or crossing …
Or, A Story of Ms. Panache and Her Four Angels Her floppy hat was made of thick velour, different colors, covered in political buttons and fabric flowers. Her scarves were multiple and multi-colored. She walked with a metal cane that had intricate designs on it. Her fingers were covered in rings. Age had shrunk her …
Arriving at the Rally on Police Brutality in the Back of a Police Cruiser Read More »
(Part I can be found here.) (2/26/2020: edited for clarity, as well as to remove some able-ist language) We long for a clear, identifiable fix. Something that we can advocate for – it might not come tomorrow or next week, but we can name it now (like body cameras on police officers, like grand juries …
Seeringly poignant, this point. We can advocate for bodycams on police, sign every petition, the national ones, the local ones. We can write to the governor, to our state reps and senators. We can call our local police stations. We can lend our bodies and our hearts to the public eye and join and/or support …
Eric and Jesus Can't Breathe: Another Non-Indictment (Part I) Read More »
When I preached on the Sunday a week after Mike Brown was murdered in Ferguson, Missouri, like many ministers that week, I changed the topic I was going to preach on — like many ministers are choosing to do this Sunday, in the wake of the grand jury decision not to go forward with a …
I am supposed to be moved to write something, or say something, or craft some response to the news from Ferguson, Missouri. Something deep or inspiring. Instead, I am stunned. And sad. Existentially fretful. Deeply discouraged. I have nothing new to add to the cacophony. And as I go to publish this post, a police …
As I have written about in Part I, I am currently “reading” (listening as I drive) to Michelle Alexander’s amazing book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. This book was chosen several years ago as the Unitarian Universalist Association’s CommonRead – where the whole denomination is encouraged to read a …
A Game of Chess: The New Jim Crow Over & Over (Part II) Read More »
Maybe you were like me when the George Zimmerman trial was going on, shocked (not necessarily surprised) that the defense would come up with something so totally messed up as to say that Trayvon Martin was not unarmed because he used the ground upon which he was standing (and defending himself against an unprovoked aggressor) …
Furtive Movements: The New Jim Crow Over & Over (part I) Read More »